GIFT  OF 


8061  '\z  m  IVd 

"A  *N  'asnoBJAS 

*sojg  pjolXeo 


Cosmos,  or  Chaos? 


Theism,  or  Atheism? 


By    H.    D.    BARROWS 


BAUMGARDT    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 
116    NORTH     BROADWAY 

Los  Angeles,  California 


i^i?:*^.^ 


COSMOS. OR  CHAOS? 

THEISM.  OR  ATHEISM? 

Lord  Kelvin  last  year  gave  expression  to  a  philosophical 
truth  of  the  highest  import  to  the  human  race.    He  said: 

**We  are  absolutely  forced  by  science  to  believe  with  per- 
fect confidence  in  a  Directive  Power — in  an  influence  other  than 
physical,  or  dynamical  or  electrical  forces."* 

Inasmuch  as  there  has  been  a  strong  tendency  in  recent 
years  amongst  those  philosophers  who  have  become  immersed 
in  the  study  of  purely  material  phenomena,  to  eliminate  in- 
telligence from  the  universe,  and  to  reduce  all  explanations  of 
the  action  of  the  physical  forces  of  nature  to  a  bald,  blind,  non- 
intelligent  basis.  Lord  Kelvin *s  deliverance  was  indeed  timely; 
and  it  is  of  peculiar  significance  at  this  time,  because  of  the 
very  fact  that,  the  later  disciples  of  Darwin  show  more  and 
more,  a  disposition  to  insist  on  a  non-theistic  and  absolutely 
mechanical  interpretation  of  the  teachings  of  their  leader.  The 
passionate  attack  by  one  group— the  non-theistic  group— of 
evolutionists,  on  Lord  Kelvin  because  of  his  utterance,  abund- 
antly shows  that  it  was  not  made  one  moment  too  soon. 

In  offering  some  observations  on  the  great  theme  to  which 
Lord  Kelvin  called  attention,  I  propose  in  this  paper,  to  use,  for 
reasons  which  will  doubtlessly  become  apparent,  the  single 
word.  Intelligence,  in  place  of  the  phrase,  "Directive  Power/* 
as  used  by  Lord  Kelvin;  although  I  believe  his  position  as 
indicated  by  the  use  of  that  term,  is  absolutely  impregnable; 
just  as  was  Liebig's,  whom  he  quoted,  when  the  latter  said, 
that  he  could  no  more  believe  that  the  grass  and  flowers  grew 
by  mere  chemical  forces,  than  he  could  believe  that  a  book  of 
botany,  describing  them,  could  grow  by  mere  chemical  forces. 

One  of  the  unaccountable  anomalies  in  the  history  of 
philosophical  research,  is  the  refusal  of  a  certain  class  of  stu- 
dents or  devotees  of  science,  to  recognize  intelligence  as  an 
essential  factor  in  natural  phenomena ;  whilst  they  at  the  same 
time,  voluntarily  and  without  argument  recognize  it  through- 


*NiBeteenth  Century,  June,  1903,  pp.  1068-70. 

302024 


out  the  whole  domain  of  Art— using  the  word  Art,  as  covering 
all  of  Man's  works.  Indeed,  this  same  class  will  freely  concede 
that  it  would  be  wholly  unscientific,  and  logically  intolerable, 
to  refuse  to  acknowledge  that  all  the  various  (simple  or  com- 
plex) works  of  man,  wherever  found,  necessarily  and  inevitably 
show  results  of  intelligence  in  their  creation,  no  matter  how 
far  man,  their  author,  may  be  separated  from  those  works,  by 
time  or  space. 

As  we  study  the  monuments  of  antiquity,  Lord  Kelvin's 
dictum,  if  applied  to  them,  is  everlastingly  true:  '* Science 
compels  us  to  accept  as  an  article  of  our  belief,"  the  fact,  that 
they  are  the  product  of  a  ** creating  and  directing  power,"  or 
of  an  Intelligence,  having'  purpose,  together  with  adequate 
power  to  carry  out  that  purpose;  and,  its  corollary  is  equally 
true,  viz.,  that  without  intelligence  they  never  could  have  been 
produced. 

Science,  that  is,  systematized  knowledge,  is  bound  by  the 
most  sacred  obligations,  to  take  cognizance  of  all  the  essential 
elements  of  any  problem  it  undertakes  to  explain,  or  else  it 
ceases  to  be  true  science  and  becomes  pseudo-science;  in  other 
words,  it  fails  to  explain.  This  result,  of  course,  may  happen, 
when  the  evidence,  or  any  part  of  the  evidence  necessary  to 
the  adequate  explanation  of  a  problem,  or,  to  the  proper  inter- 
pretation of  any  phenomenon  whatsoever,  is  wholly  or  partly 
outside  of  human  comprehension  or  cognition.  Or,  again,  it 
may  happen,  and,  in  fact,  too  often  does  happen,  to  those  who 
have  perverse  or  defective  logical  faculties,  whenever  they 
either  ignorantly  or  wilfully,  or  from  other  motives,  shut  their 
eyes  to  what  should  be  perfectly  obvious,  as  well  as  essential, 
and  they  thereby  misinterpret  the  phenomena  which,  in  the 
name  of  science,  they  pretend  to  explain. 

It  ought  to  be  a  tolerably  safe  maxim  that,  logical  reason- 
ing, if  enlightened  and  transparently  honest,  which  takes  due 
cognizance  of  all  the  main  elements  of  a  problem  within  its 
reach,  should  point,  as  a  rule,  with  reasonable  precision,  to 
logical  certainty;  (or,  in  condensed  form:  Logical  reasoning, 
as  a  rule,  ought  to  point,  with  reasonable  precision,  to  logical 
certainty). 

In  our  study  of  the  problem  as  to  whether  or  not,  spirit 
influences  matter  in  the  realm  of  art  or  of  the  works  of  man, 
we  are  able,  fortunately,  from  actual  observation,  to  verify, 
what  a  priori  seem  to  us,  the  infallible  conclusions  of  rigorous 
logic. 


Of  course  it  is  very  true  that  we  do  not  yet  know  the 
extent  of  the  influence  of  mind  or  of  spirit  over  matter.  The 
investigation  of  this  question,  which  is  ever  before  us,  con- 
stitutes a  most  interesting  and  fascinating  study.  We  are 
compelled  constantly  to  recognize,  in  our  own  individual  ex- 
perience and  in  our  surroundings,  the  action  and  influence  of 
mind  on  matter,  and  vice  versa.  How  this  is  effected,  even 
in  our  own  personal  and  intimate  acts,  we  but  partially  com- 
prehend. When  we  lift  a  finger  or  raise  a  hand,  we  are  fully 
conscious  of  the  act  and  of  our  power  to  perform  the  act  at 
will.  But  just  how  and  by  what  means,  our  will,  or  the 
Psyche  or  spirit  within  our  cranium  which  dominates  and 
directs  the  movements  (not  involuntary)  of  our  material  bodies, 
impinges  or  exerts  an  impulse  on  the  nerves  and  muscles 
which  extend  from  the  head  to  the  halid;  in  other  words,  just 
how  and  where  about  the  connection  is  made  between  the 
spirit  or  determining  factor,  and  the  physical  member  or  object 
acted  on,  we  know  not,  or  know  but  partially.  We  vaguely 
suppose,  that  the  resident  master  of  the  castle  (or  palace,  or 
Temple),  the  enthroned  Peyche  whom  we  are  able  to  easily 
locate  within  the  cortex  of  the  brain,  which  is  the  headquarters 
of  our  spiritual  dynamics,  generates  a  nervous  fluid  or  an 
electric  current,  and  sends  it  along  the  nerves  to  the  hand,  and 
causes  the  muscles  of  the  arm  to  contract  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  compel  the  hand  or  the  finger,  physical  substance  though 
they  are,  to  obey  the  mandate  of  the  purely  spiritual  sovereign 
of  the  castle,  the  Psyche— but  for  whose  light  (of  intelligence), 
the  castle  would  be  dark  indeed ! 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  (as  I  have  elsewhere  pointed 
out,*)  that  **the  nervous  system  of  the  human  organism  is  like 
the  telegraphic  system  which  radiates  from  a  central  telegraph 
office;'*  but,  how  useless  would  each  system  be  without  a  pre- 
siding genius— an  ''operator"— at  each  headquarters. 

The  readiness,  the  sometimes  lightning-like  promptness 
with  which  dull,  unconsicous  matter  responds  to  spiritual 
dynamics  in  endless  instances,  (and  often  over  long  distances) 
with  which  we  all  are  familiar,  as  exemplified  in  the  use  of  the 
telegraph  and  the  telephone,  is  simply  startling;  as  is  no  less 
the  colossal  power  which  intelligence,  even  finite  intelligence, 
may  invoke,  by  harnessing  steam  and  electricity  to  intelligence- 
made  machinery,  and  directing  their  action— manipulating  even 


*Los  Angeles  Herald,  September  27, 1391. 

5 


the  minute  details  and  mode  of  their  action— in  some  useful 
and  specifically  purposeful  service. 

The  universally-received  canons  of  philosophy  recognize 
inertia  as  one  of  the  properties  or  essential  attributes  of  mat- 
ter. Of  course  matter,  i.  e.,  blind  material  substance,  has  other 
wonderful  potencies;  but  I  believe  it  is  demonstrable  that  in- 
telligence is  not  one  of  them. 

Thinking,  designing,  contriving,  constructing,  choosing, 
reasoning,  do  not  pertain  in  any  sense  to  the  domain  of  inert 
matter,  nor  to  its  latent  forces,  whereby,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly or  by  graduated  evolution,  cunningly-contrived  and 
infinitely-complex  and  adequately-complete  organisms,  are  pro- 
duced. 

If  there  is  one  lesson  that  man's  experiments  with  primi- 
tive or  unorganized  matter  have  impressed  on  his  consciousness 
more  thoroughly  than  another,  it  is  that  the  material  substance 
of  which  the  surface  of  this  earth  is  composed,  is  incapable  of 
fashioning  itself  into  any  species  of  mechanism  whatever,  in- 
volving design:  indeed,  according  to  what  seems  to  be  the 
universal  and  eternal  law  of  inertia,  it  is  incapable  of  even 
simple  motion,  except  under  the  impulse  of  some  influence 
outside  of  itself.  And,  unless  that  impelling  influence  (under 
the  latter  supposition)  is  directed  by  intelligence— either  finite 
or  infinite— such  motion  can  only  result  along  narrow,  and 
hard-and-fast  lines. 

How  true,  how  true!  is  Lord  Kelvin's  dictum,  that  *' every 
action  of  free  will,  (i.  e.  of  intelligence)  is  a  miracle  to  physical 
and  chemical  and  mathematical  science."  And  if  this  be  true 
of  the  rocks  and  minerals  which  now  lie,  and  which  for  un- 
known periods  of  time  have  lain  buried  beneath  the  accumu- 
lated debris  that  has  been  slowly  detached  or  degraded  from 
their  surface,  by  action  of  the  elemental  forces,  (water  and  the 
diurnal  and  annual  alternating  waves  of  heat  and  cold;)  why 
must  it  not  have  been  equally  true  from  the  first,  when  the 
earth's  crust  consisted  only  of  primeval  rock,  devoid  absolutely 
of  vegetable  or  animal  life,  or  even  of  rudimentary  organism  of 
any  sort?  For,  according  to  universally  received  notions,  there 
was  such  a  period  when  such  a  state  of  affairs  existed. 

Intelligence,  the  intelligence  of  spirit— for,  from  whatever 
point  of  view  we  look  at  the  matter,  we  seem  to  be  compelled 
to  postulate  the  existence,  as  an  entity,  of  spirit— unless,  in- 
stead, we  concede  that  man's  intelligence  which  is  certainly  a 
positive  force  that  directs  and  governs  his  acts,  is  a  necessary 

6 


attribute  of  the  material  substance  of  which  his  body  is  com- 
posed—intelligence, of  a  truth,  is  the  great  miracle-worker  in 
the  domain  of  physics. 

It  is  utterly  inconceivable  that  any  fortuitous  motion  of 
atoms,  or  any  possible  indirected  action  of  material  force,  could 
ever  have  produced  a  clock,  a  loom,  a  dynamo,  a  steam-engine 
or  a  printing-press. 

Why  then,  could  they,  unaided,  either  singly  or  in  cunning 
combination,  be  supposed  to  have  produced  so  wonderful  and 
perfectly-working  an  organism  as  that  of  a  mosquito,  a  hum- 
ming-bird, a  lark,  or  a  condor? 

Under  the  magic  influence  of  human  intelligence,  certain 
material  substances  may  be  ingeniously  combined  in  a  complex 
piece  of  mechanism,  which,  when  set  in  motion,  will,  by  means 
of  purely  physical  forces,  mark  time,  both  for  the  eye  and  the 
ear,  with  automatic  precision,  for  a  day,  a  week  or  a  year,  or 
indefinitely,  and  that  without  outside  aid  from  any  source.  It 
will,  both  day  and  night,  note  the  seconds,  the  hours  in  their 
numerical  order,  the  days  of  the  week,  the  month  and  the 
year.  It  will  strike  the  hour  and  the  number  of  the  hour  from 
and  after  midnight  and  after  mid-day,  from  one  to  twelve,  in 
precise,  successive  order,  or  156  times  during  a  single  revolu- 
tion of  the  earth  on  its  axis;  it  will  audibly  and  visibly  tick 
60  times  each  minute,  and  3600  times  each  hour,  and  86,400 
times  each  day  of  twenty-four  hours ;  and  being  thus  endowed, 
by  intelligence  wholly  outside  itself,  with  motion,  it  will  go  on 
doing  all  these  things  with  wonderful  regularity,  for  an  in- 
definite period  of  time,  if  adequately  equipped  with  cog-wheels 
properly  adjusted  for  the  multiplication  of  motion.  In  this 
city  of  Los  Angeles  there  may  be  seen  a  clock  which  will  run 
400  days,  or  more  than  one  year,  by  means  of  its  mere  material 
blind  forces,  without  further  aid,  after  once  having  been  in- 
geniously organized  and  set  in  motion,  not  by  itself,  nor  by 
any  force  within  itself,  but  wholly  by  intelligence  entirely  out- 
side itself,  which,  in  fact,  was  its  creator. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note  with  special  emphasis,  that  neither 
this  machine  as  a  whole,  nor  a  single  atom  of  its  constituent 
elements,  nor  even  a  single  one  of  the  forces  inherent  in  the 
substance  of  which  it  is  composed,  possesses  intelligence  in  any 
form;  nevertheless,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  governing 
those  forces,  and  in  obedience  to  the  purposeful  behests  of  its 
creator,  it  blindly  but  with  mathematical  precision  performs 
the  task,  for  the  execution  of  which  it  was  created. 


It  is  furthermore,  of  more  importance  still  to  note  the 
momentous  fact,  that  without  intelligence,  that  is  to  say,  with- 
out creative,  directive  power,  neither  this  machine  nor  any 
machine  of  all  the  endless  list  of  man's  creations,  could  ever 
have  been  evolved.  Blind  matter  and  blind  force,  minus  the 
directing  influence  of  intelligence,  from  within  or  from  with- 
out, do  not  and  we  believe  never  did,  and  never  can,  produce 
or  develop  or  evolve,  either  by  slow  or  by  sudden  changes, 
those  "miracles  to  physical  and  chemical  and  mathematical 
science,"  clocks,  steam-engines,  printing  and  type-writing  ma- 
chines, dynamos,  Jaquard-looms,  automobiles,  or  even  the 
simplest  of  all  machines,  a  pin  without  a  head,  or  a  needle 
without  an  eye. 

The  water  of  a  mountain  stream,  unconscious,  inert  sub- 
stance that  it  is,  can  only  rush,  in  obedience  to  a  force  outside 
of  itself  (gravity)  helplessly  onward  and  downward  to  the  sea. 
Atheistic  philosophers,  in  their  wildest  vagaries,  have  not  the 
hardihood  to  pretend  that  water,  with  all  its  inherent  potenti- 
alities, as  liquid  or  as  vapor,  can,  unaided  by  intelligence  from 
without  or  within,  harness  itself  to  a  single  tiniest  wheel  for 
any  purposeful  or  rational  object  whatsoever.  But  on  the 
contrary,  and  without  exception,  they  will  spontaneously  agree 
that  water-force  has  been,  or  may  be,  harnessed  and  trans- 
muted, even  by  finite  intelligence,  into  a  dirigible  or  controll- 
able power,  capable,  metaphorically  speaking,  of  moving  the 
world ! 

Running  water,  obedient  to  the  law  of  inertia,  unaided, 
naturally  gravitates  downward;  but  cunning  intelligence,  can 
make  it  reverse*  that  tendency  and  move  upward,  through  the 
mechanism  of  what  is  known  as  a  Persian  wheel,  whereby  the 
preponderance  in  weight  of  water  falling  on  the  levers  or  arms 
on  one  side  of  the  wheel,  will  cause  the  opposite  arms  with 
buckets  to  force  the  water  to  move  upward,  or  in  an  opposite 
direction  from  that  in  which  it  would  naturally  move. 

It  behooves  the  student  of  philosophy  who  honestly  de- 
sires to  gain  a  glimpse  of  the  true  theory  of  things,  to  keep 
in  view  the  basic  truth,  that  not  only,  in  this  illustration  of 
the  use  of  water-power  by  intelligence  for  a  definite  object, 
but  throughout  all  the  endless,  complicated  uses  to  which  man 
has  employed  this  force  of  nature,  the  water  itself  had  no  in- 
telligence, no  option,  no  purpose  whatsoever,  in  the  directing 
of  the  action  of  its  latent  forces  thus  invoked,  by  an  influence 
wholly  outside  of  itself;  but  that,  on  the  contrary  it  merely 

8 


as  an  unconscious  substance,  obeyed  the  impulses  which  intelli- 
gence—or shall  we  say  spirit,  possessing  intelligence— im- 
pressed on  it  from  without,  and  which  developed  and  gave 
intelligent  direction  to  the  action  of  its  inherent  or  natural, 
but  nevertheless  blind  forces,  along  coherent  or  rational  lines, 
for  the  accomplishment,  immediately  or  remotely,  of  a  definite 
object.  And  further,  that  this  action  could  never  have  taken 
place,  and  these  coherent  results  could  never,  by  any  possibility 
have  been  produced,  without  the  aid  (from  some  source  other 
than  from  the  water  itself)  of  directive,  constructive  intelli- 
gence. 

No  neotheistic  philosopher  will  assert  that  water,  with  all 
its  expansive  power  under  the  influence  of  heat,  that  is,  as 
vapor  or  steam,  is  capable,  unaided,  of  generating  or  organiz- 
ing its  expansive  force  for  purposeful  objects.  But  he  will, 
nevertheless,  very  readily  concede  that  its  elasticity,  together 
with  its  fluidity,  are  wonderfully  responsive  to  the  influence  of 
intelligence;  as  are  even  the  stability  and  fixity  of  metal  in 
the  boiler,  in  which  it  may  be  compressed,  as  we  see  exemplified 
in  the  locomotive.  Indeed  the  very  fixity  and  stability  of  the 
metal  of  which  a  locomotive  is  composed,  seem,  under  proper 
treatment,  readily  to  yield,  all  along  the  line  from  the  crude 
ore  to  the  finished  product,  to  the  manipulations  of  intelligence, 
whereby,  that  miracle  to  inert  matter  and  to  blind  force,  an 
organized  steam-engine  is  ** evolved.'* 

Man,  since  he  discovered  himself,  or  since  the  dawn  of 
civilization,  has  had  ample  opportunity  to  study  matter  and 
its  properties,  in  their  latent  or  primitive  state,  as  well  as  their 
wonderful  responsiveness  to  the  manipulation  of  his  own  will. 
He  has  learned  that  that  will  can  exert  its  subtle  influence  on 
matter,  by  so  developing,  blending  and  differentiating  its  pro- 
tean forces  as  to  cause  it  to  produce  results  that  are  simply 
wonderful— results,  moreover,  that  are  impossible  for  it  ta 
produce  without  such  or  similar  directive  guidance. 

Finite,  i.  e.,  human  intelligence  is  able,  (as  we  in  our 
daily  experience  see  demonstrated),  to  manipulate  blind  mat- 
ter and  its  equally  blind,  or  purely  mechanical  forces  into* 
purposeful,  that  is  to  say,  useful  or  beautiful  organisms  or 
machines,  of  endless  variety.  And  we  know,  or  think  we 
know— because  we  can,  in  many  ways,  empirically  verify  our 
knowledge— that  these  machines  are  the  direct  creations  of 
intelligence— of  human  intelligence;  that  they  are  irrefragible 
—they  sometimes  seem  almost  miraculous— exemplifications  of 

9 


the   wonderful  influence  of  spirit  over  matter  and  over  the 
forces  of  matter. 

What  subtle,  evancescent  but  potent  current  is  that  which 
thus  serves  as  a  medium— as  a  sort  of  fleet-winged  Mercury— 
to  connect  spirit  and  matter? 

Matter— gross,  ponderable,  tangible  substance— is  appreci- 
able, through  our  senses,  by  our  consciousness.  But  spirit  is 
wholly  invisible,  wholly  inaudible,  wholly  inappreciable  by  oc 
through  any  one  of  our  physical  senses.  We  can  only  gain 
knowledge  of  its  existence,  primarily  by  consciousness  within 
ourselves;  and  secondarily,  by  the  results  of  its  action  or 
influence  on  matter  and  on  material  forces,  in  an  infinite 
variety  of  ways.  And  these  results  are  as  real  and  as  tangible, 
as  the  existence  of  matter  itself;  and  it  would  be  as  senseless 
and  unreasonable  to  deny  the  existence  of  spiritual  force,  or 
of  the  force  of  directive  intelligence,  because  it  is  invisible  or 
inappreciable  to  our  senses,  as  it  would  be  to  deny  the  existence 
of  the  material  forces,  electricity,  gravity,  etc.,  because  they 
are  altogether  invisible,  and  only  manifest  their  existence  by 
the  positive  results  of  their  action  in  the  production  of  tangible, 
physical  phenomena. 

It  would  seem  as  though  we  were  compelled  to  postulate 
separately,  spiritual  force  and  material  force,  and  to  clearly 
distinguish  between  them.  The  chief  characteristic  of  spirit, 
is  consciousness,  and  its  action  manifests  intelligence;  whilst 
matter  is  unconscious,  and  the  action  of  material  force  is 
per  se,  uniformly  and  universally  non-intelligent. 

We  seem  to  be  driven,  nolens  volens,  to  adopt  one  or  the 
other  alternative,  that  matter  is  conscious,  or  is  capable  of 
acquiring  consciousness;  or  else,  that  that  subtle,  exclusively 
spiritual  condition  which  we  call  consciousness,  must  have  a 
spiritual  basis.  But  whatever  fundamental  definitions  we  may 
formulate  as  to  the  nature  of  man,  we  are  confronted  with  the 
ineffaceable  fact,  that  our  consciousness  largely  dominates  and 
controls  our  physical  acts.  Call  things  by  whatever  name  we 
will,  it  certainly  is  true  that  we  possess  the  power  of  percep 
tion,  of  choice,  of  determination,  within  limitations,  whereby 
we  may  direct  our  own  acts;  and,  in  fact,  we  are  conscious  of 
our  own  consciousness,  which,  though  so  vivid  within  our  brain, 
is  nevertheless  so  evasive,  that  we  are  utterly  unable  to  bring 
it  to  the  test  of  our  tactile,  or  any  other  of  our  merely  physical 
senses.    Whilst  we  are  conscious  that  our  Ego— our  real  self— 

lO 


is  located  within  the  cortex  of  our  brain,  it  is  altogether  im- 
possible for  us  to  f^el  therein,  by  contact  or  motion,  anything 
material— either  the  bony  substance  of  our  skull  within  which 
our  spirit— our  real  self— acts  and  wills;  or,  even  to  feel  by 
contact,  the  gray  matter  which  is  the  dwelling-place  of  that 
only  part  of  us  which  is  conscious,  and  which  constitutes  our 
true  personality. 

And  indeed  this  is  not  so  very  strange,  when  we  consider 
that  the  world  of  sound  is  wholly  closed  to  our  sense  of  sight, 
and  vice  versa,  that  the  door  of  the  visible  is  totally  and  ab- 
solutely closed  to  the  sense  of  hearing.  It  therefore  does  not 
follow  that,  because  our  auditory  sense  cannot  take  cognizance 
of  the  world  revealed  to  us  by  our  sight,  that  that  world  does 
not  exist. 

Again :  When  we  see  a  picture  of  the  world  around  us,  or 
of  any  material  object,  it  is  not  the  outward  eye  or  the  retina, 
or  the  optic  nerve,  nor  even  the  gray  matter  of  our  brain  that 
sees,  but  it  is  our  mental  or  spiritual  eye— our  mind's  eye- 
that  sees  or  takes  cognizance  and  interprets  the  significance  of 
the  object  or  objects  thus  pictured  on  the  retina,  or  on  the 
merely  physical  convolutions  of  the  brain. 

As  students  or  investigators  of  spiritual  and  material 
phenomena,  we  cannot  too  thoroughly  saturate  ourselves  with 
the  truth,  that  it  is  the  mind's  eye,  our  spiritual  self,  which 
actually  sees  and  comprehends  objects  of  sight,  and  not  at  all 
the  outward,  bodily  eye,  which,  in  fact,  is  but  a  door  or  window 
of  the  temple,  from  which  the  imperial  tenant  looks  out  on  the 
material  world ;  and  also,  on  the  spiritual  world  and  its  activi- 
ties, as  well. 

When  we  look  into  the  face  of  a  friend,  we  instinctively 
look  through  and  beyond  his  outer  eyes  to  the  spiritual  per- 
sonality behind  the  superficial  mask.  It  is  the  subtle,  spiritual 
entity  of  our  personality— our  ultimate  ego— that  takes  cogniz- 
ance of  the  spiritual  entity  of  another  personality. 

Intelligence— which  is  but  the  comprehension  of  spirit— 
at  any  rate,  it  is  not  the  comprehension  of  matter,  nor  the 
cognition,  by  the  atoms  which  constitute  the  physical  organism 
of  a  personality— Intelligence,  without  which  this  world  would 
be  a  blank,  purposeless,  drifting  ball,  and  the  vast  universe 
now  a  Cosmos,  would  become  a  dark,  unmeaning  Chaos— In- 
telligence, must  certainly  be  reckoned  with,  as  an  absolutely 
necessary  and  essential  factor,  in  all  the  works  and  creations 
of  man,  since  man  has  existed  on  this  earth.    And,  if  intelli- 

II 


gence  is  by  no  possible  means,  a  negligible  factor  in  any- 
rational  explanation  or  interpretation  of  the  works  of  Art, 
how  can  it  be  logically  tolerable  to  disregard  it  as  an  essentially 
vital  factor  in  any  true  and  faithful  interpretation  of  the 
works  of  Nature. 

Applying  the  purely  mechanical  theory  of  evolution,  as 
advocated  by  a  certain  class  of  philosophers,  to  the  mechanical 
works  of  man,  as  for  example,  (to  cite  a  single  instance)  the 
production  of  steel,  and  its  utilization  for  purposeful  objects,' 
it  might  be  true  enough,  in  describing  all  the  actual  processes 
gone  through  in  its  transformation,  to  say  that  the  primitive 
iron-ore,  from  which  it  was  evolved,  passed  '  *  from  an  indefinite, 
incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  definite,  coherent  heterogeneity/* 
But  if  such  description,  either  by  direct  affirmation,  or  by  in- 
direct implication,  asserted  that  those  processes  were  initiated 
and  gradually  "evolved"  solely  and  mechanically  by  impulses 
from  within  the  metal  itself,  and  absolutely  without  the  in- 
fluence, and  creative  direction  of  outside  intelligence,  such  an 
assertion  would  cause  a  shock  to  any  logical  mind,  and  would 
be  universally  repudiated,  because  its  falsity  would  be  sus- 
ceptible of  facile  demonstration.  Blind,  unorganized  matter, 
never,  so  far,  as  human  intelligence  is  able  to  judge,  performs 
such  impossible  freaks. 

And  yet  it  is  just  such  impossible  feats  as  these,  that  the 
advocates  of  the  mechanical  theory  of  the  Universe  persistently 
defend. 

Evolution,  as  an  explanatory  theory  of  organic  existence 
in  this  world— (and  presumably  in  all  worlds*)— directed  by 
intelligence,  is  a  reasonable  proposition.  But  the  assertion 
that  the  evolution  of  organisms  along  rational  or  intelligent 
lines,  takes  place  by  or  through  the  sole  action  of  blind  forces, 
which  of  themselves  are  without  intelligence,  is  a  contradiction 
of  terms;  and  we  recognize  this  momentous  fact  in  its  fullest 
significance  in  all  the  works  of  man.  No  conceivable  action  of 
purely  material  forces,  undirected  by  intelligence,  ever  has 
builded  or  ever  can  build,  and  set  in  motion  a  simple  wheel,  a 
railroad  system,  a  telegraphic  system  or  a  djniamo.  All  these 
and  myriads  of  other  machines  are  the  creations  of  human 
intelligence  and  ingenuity.  Moreover,  they  never  could  have 
existed  except  that  their  creation  had  been  initiated,  directed 
and  perfected  by  intelligence  of  some  sort,  and  from  some 

♦The  fact  has  been  demonstrated;  by  means  of  the  Spectroscope,  that  the  essential 
attributes  of  matter  are  identical  throughout  the  stellar  universe. 


source  outside  themselves.  Their  creation  involved,  to  use 
the  words  of  Lord  Kelvin,  "an  influence  other  than  physical  or 
dynamical  or  electrical  forces."  Of  this  fact  there  can  be  no 
possibility  of  doubt. 

And  how  better  can  we,  now  and  ever,  characterize  that 
influence  than  to  classify  it  as  a  spiritual  force,  which  is  not 
only  different  from  the  mere  physical  forces,  but  to  which  these 
latter  are,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  obedient  servants.  In- 
deed, we  cannot  but  be  amazed  when  we  consider  how  pliantly 
have  these  dormant  forces  of  matter  responded  in  the  past  and 
do  still  respond,  to  the  magic  wand  of  man's  will.  In  recent 
years,  we  see  how  electrical  energy,  invoked  by  the  same  potent 
spiritual  impulse,  is  given  direction  as  a  purely  material  force, 
whereby  ponderous  machinery  is  set  and  kept  in  motion  at 
will,  and  made,  although  unconscious  itself,  to  subserve  man's 
conscious  purposes,  in  a  thousand  ways. 

And  so  chemical  force  and  gravity,  blind,  unconscious  and 
unintelligent  in  themselves,  are  made  the  servants  of  the 
master-force  called  spiritual— otherwise  known  as  the  human 
will.  But  all  these  material  forces,  so  powerful  under  spiritual 
direction  for  the  accomplishment  of  spiritual  or  rational  ob- 
jects, are  utterly  incapable  of  accomplishing  any  purpose  with- 
out such  direction,  because  they  neither  possess  that  conscious- 
ness whose  prerogative  it  is  to  choose,  to  elect,  to  decide,  nor 
the  capacity  to  achieve,  without  adequate  guidance,  any  co- 
herent, purposeful  object. 

Evolution,  directed  by  intelligence,  (and  not  otherwise,) 
as  a  method  of  accounting  for  the  genesis  of  vegetal  and 
animal  cell-life,  and  for  the  gradual  differentiation  of  higher 
from  lower  forms  of  life,  would  seem  to  be,  both  rational  and 
in  accordance  with  the  actual  processes  of  Nature,  so  far  as 
man  has  been  able  to  verify  those  processes. 

Thus,  the  higher  forms  of  animal  life  could  not  have  existed 
if  they  had  not  been  preceded  by  the  lower  and  simpler  types 
of  both  animal  and  vegetable  organisms.  If  man,  or  any  of 
the  more  highly-developed  classes  of  the  animal  kingdom,  had 
appeared  on  the  earth  immediately  after  its  crust  had  cooled 
sufficiently  for  animal  life  to  have  existed,  they  must  inevitably 
have  perished  for  want  of  sustenance.  Indeed,  ages  must  have 
elapsed,  during  which,  soil,  from  the  rocks  by  attrition  through 
the  action  of  the  elements,  could  have  accumulated  on  land ;  or 
slime  could  have  settled  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  wherein  and 
whereon  even  protoplasm  could  have  subsisted. 

13 


But  why  should  the  evolution  of  cells,  even  in  their  most 
rudimentary  forms,  have  proceeded  along  one  line  rather  than 
along  another,  if  undirected,  from  without  or  from  within? 
Was  the  bias  of  matter  or  of  its  attributes,  sufficient  to  account, 
in  any  case,  for  the  direction  actually  taken  in  the  beginnings 
of  the  evolutionary  processes?  And  why  should  matter,  en- 
tirely devoid  of  organisms  of  any  kind,  have  behaved  differently 
then  from  now?  Was  it  not  as  easy  and  as  natural  for  the 
impulse  of  spirit— for  the  plastic  but  certainly  positive  in- 
fluence of  Intelligence— Infinite  Intelligence— to  have  directed, 
then  as  now,  development— evolution— along  constructive,  co- 
herent lines?  Judging  from  the  somewhat  intimate  knowledge 
man  has  acquired  concerning  the  action  of  matter  in  its  normal, 
cell-less,  unintelligent  state,  he  cannot  conceive  of  any  other 
way  whereby  coherent  development  could  have  resulted. 

Furthermore,  is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  believe  that 
the  differentiation  of  species  and  the  evolution  of  higher  forms 
from  lower  during  all  the  many  stages  thereof,  was  directed, 
determined  and  effected  by  Intelligence,  utilizing,  always, 
natural  means  and  forces,  to  bring  about  natural,  but  ever- 
purposeful  results,  than  to  believe  that  those  results  could 
have  been  produced  by  accident,  or  by  the  blind  bias  of  un- 
conscious matter;  or,  by  the  eccentric  action  of  irresponsible 
and  unintelligent  force;  or,  finally,  by  the  inconceivably  im- 
probable method  of  "a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms?" 

Los  Angeles,  1904. 

[Los  Angeles  Herald,  September  27,  1891.] 

Dt.  Minot  J.  Savage  in  his  brilliant  lecture  at  the  I/os  Angeles 
theatre,  Saturday  nighty  the  19tih  insc,  in  answering  the  question,  Where 
does  thie  consciousness  in  man,  the  ego,  the  I,  reside,  asserted  that  it  was 
omnipresent  throughout  his  organism,  or  throughout  his  entire  body. 

That  this  proposition  is  altogether  erroneous  is,  I  think,  susceptible 
of  verification  in  various  ways,  by  any  person  of  average  intelligence. 
The  easiest  and  simplest  way  is  by  what  I  should  call  the  negative 
method:  i.  e.,  in  what  part  of  one's  body  does  this  consciousness  not 
reside?  Moreover,  in  answering  this  very  important  question,  the  con- 
sclousnesis  itself  should,  or  ought  to  be  the  sole  judge  of  the  evidence. 

Thus  is  my  hand  or  my  foot  conscious?  That  is  to  say,  (for  want  of 
a  better  figure  of  speech)  does  the  eye  of  that  within  me  which  is 
conscious,  which  knows— my  "mind's  eye"— look  out  of  my  hand  or 
of  my  foot  or 'of  my  breast?  I  know  that  it  does  not,  and  I  -can  verify 
this  knowledge  by  an  infinite  vai^ety  of  experiments;  and,  others  by 
different  buit  equally  satisfactory  experiments  can  easily  repeat  and 
thus  corroborate  my  experience. 

The  nervous  eyistem  of  the  human  organism  is  like  the  telegraphic 
isystem  which  radiates  from  a  central  telegraph  office.  It  is  always  in 
connection  (when  in  normal  condition),  and  reports  impressions  auto- 
matically land  instantaneously  to  the  cemtral  office  in  the   cranium  or 

14 


brain  where  the  consciousness  resides  and  whither  all  the  telegraphic 
ganglia  converge  or  concenter.  Because  the  sensitive  nerves  at  their 
outward  extremities  are  susceptible  to  impressions,  and  because  those 
same  nerves  aje  capable  of  conveying  those  impressions  to  the  central 
intelligence,  it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  they  (the  nerves) 
possess  intelligence  any  more  than  that  because  telegraph  wires  are 
capable  of  transmitting  chemical  or  other  impressions,  they  therefore 
theimselves  must  possess  intelligence.  If  I  close  my  eyes  and  all  my 
senses  except  the  sense  of  touch  to  the  other  world,  I  can;  satisfy  myself 
by  the  irrefragible  testimony  of  consciousness  itself,  that  if  I  touch  the 
right  side  of  my  liead,  my  mind's  eye  must  look  to  the  right  to  locate 
the  sensation  produced,  as  well  as  the  direction  of  the  same  from  my 
real  self;  or  to  the  left  to  locate  a  similar  sensation  on  the  left;  or 
upward  when  I  touch  the  top  of  my  head;  or  downward  when  I  touch 
any  other  part  of  my  body.  And  thus  I  am  gradually  able  to  demon- 
strate, as  every  person  may,  that  our  eonsciousness  must  be  located 
witBin  the  cranium,  and  nowhere  else.  Although  all  organized  matter 
is  more  or  less  susceptible  to  impressions  from  witihout,  it  is  not  neces- 
sarily conscious.  Vegetable  organisms  respond  to  the  influence  of 
warmth,  moisture,  etc.,  flowers  open  to  the  sun,  and  close  at  night;  but 
we  do  not  suppose  that  any  of  these  things  eveu  attains  consciousness. 

Although  that  subtle  efflorescence  of  organized  matter,  (or  rather, 
that  co-existent  entity,)  which  we  call  spirit— call  it  what  we  will,  it  is 
that  within  us  which  we  recognize  as  our  real  self  and  which  distinguishes 
a  man  from  an  automaton— may  have  its  genesis  in  sensitive  membranes 
(or  may  have  its  birth  contemporaneously  therewith);  and  although  it  is 
connected  with  the  material  world  through  the  medium  of  the  senses; 
though  its  seat  or  home  is  in  th^  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  none  of 
these  things— not  one  of  them  all— possesses  intelligence. 

But  this  is  too  large  a  question  to  discuss  adequately  witliin  the 
limits  of  a  necessarily  brief  newspaper  article.  The  palpable  error  of 
Dr.  Savage  in  asserting  that  man's  consciousness  resides  in  every  part 
of  his  body,  and  his  momentous  deduction  therefrom  that  God  is  im- 
manent and  not  transcendeint  in  the  universe,  that  he  resides  in  matter 
and  not  outside  of  it,  are  my  excuse  for  referring  to  thie  subject  even 
in  this  hurried  and  unsatisfactory  manner. 

I  believe  there  is  a  material  constitution  of  things  and  a  spiritual 
constitution  of  things,  as  a  very  acute,  classic  writer  of  antiquity  by 
the  name  of  Paul  taught;  and  if  so,  it  would  seem  slightly  presumptuous 
for  Dr.  Savage  or  any  other  finite  mortal,  to  insist  with  too  much  con- 
fidence, that  the  great  Supreme  Intelligence  of  the  universe  may  not 
possibly  have  central  headquarters  somewhere  in  His  spiritual  realms 
which,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  are  not  and  never  can  be  appreciable 
to  the  material  senses  of  man  or  of  any  other  order  of  beings;  for, 
though  matter  and  spirit  co-exist,  the  former  does  not  comprehend  the 
latter;  but  that  the  latter  does  comprehend  the  former,  is  a  truth  that 
is  taught  us  by  the  unchallengeable  evidence  of  our  own  consciousness. 

Los   Angeles,   September    24,    18£1.  B. 


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